Self-initiated brief for an illustrated double page magazine spread. The idea came from my own friend group chat’s valiant efforts to make a group trip work.
Taking the Friend Trip Out of the Group Chat
Article Title
Taking the Friend Trip Out of the Group Chat
Description
After the isolation of the pandemic, friends from all over are making a point to catch up with each other IRL. Whether it's thrill or chill, the vibes are all about spending quality time in person together. See what destinations are most popular among friend groups, and get some ideas and tips for planning your own.
Sketches + Iteration
I decided the key emphasis of the article should be the joys of spending quality time together, in person. Panels and grids felt confining and too reminiscent of quarantine times, so they were nixed. I honed in on the idea of friends around a big phone, like it was a table and they were sharing a meal together.
I made a silhouette of this image to begin designing my article around, then printed out a few versions of the layout so I could sketch directly on the paper at scale. This helped me identify how I wanted to handle the remaining images, highlighting 3 different trip destinations: camping, beach resort, and ski cabin.
Once the sketches and placements were in a good spot, I refined the illustrations and layout. I added a spot illustration to help break up big blocks of text, and continued adjusting hierarchy until the layout felt well-balanced. The final step was to recolor the images so that they felt playful and adventurous, yet polished.
Final Deliverables
Beyond
I adapted the illustrations and sentiment to create an advertising campaign for a travel company. Below is an example of the campaign across different media types.
